I didn't want to be an actor

Chapter 389 "Zhou Sheng Ru Gu" (13)

Yang Bei is the vice president of iQiyi.

As the head of Qi Zheng Studio, she leads the team responsible for copyright procurement and customized drama production for iQiyi. She is also one of the producers of "Go Go Squid!"

In addition to "Honey Stewed Squid", she also participated in the production and development of "Story of Yanxi Palace", "The Son-in-law", "The Golden Years", "Like a Flowing River"...

We have cooperated with most companies.

After all, iQiyi is a platform-based website, so it naturally needs high-quality content.

But how can we get high-quality content?

What Yang Bei does is quality!
Of course Shen Liang also knew her. They had communicated during the filming of "Honey Stewed Squid"...

At the end of the day, Yang Bei specifically asked Shen Liang if he had any particular favorite topics.

Then I heard him say, "We can also consider ancient puppet dramas!"

It just so happened that Huace Film & TV, the producer of "Go Go Squid!", was preparing to adapt another work by Mobao Feibao, "One Life, One World, Beautiful Bones", and the screenwriter was also the author of the original novel.

This drama is pretty good.

It was adapted into two dramas, "Zhou Sheng Ru Gu" and "One Life, One World"...

The former is a great tragedy, while the latter is a forced sweet drama.

But the filming was not good - the character of the male protagonist, "lying drunk on the beach of bones, singing wildly, with a pot of wine and a horse, how many people in the world are like the king"!
Young and promising, experienced in battles, invincible, caring about the world, abiding by the duties of a minister, feared by his family, slandered by the government and the public, but still not changing his original intention, broad-minded, but also bitter...

Such a good opportunity to show one's personality, but he didn't even take the photo!
Let's have some scenes to recall how brave he was on the battlefield;

Lying drunk on the beach of bones, what a wonderful scene: the young King Nanchen, who had won battles again and again, drank heartily with his soldiers, but suddenly felt sad after the joy, and lay drunk on the beach of bones with a pot of wine and a horse. He turned his heart to the bright moon, and sighed as he sang to the wine. As the sun set and night fell, he looked at Zhongzhou in silence, and only his lonely and upright back was left in the vast world...

The desolate scene sets the tragic tone of the play.

In the TV series, Sanniangzi only memorized these few lines, and it only took a dozen seconds...

Guo Hu is really bad!

If "Lotus Tower" had a different director, it would have gotten at least 9 points.

"Camp with Love"...the true colors are revealed!

However, Shen Liang does not have any time: "I have four movies to shoot later..."

"It's okay, we can wait!"

Shen Liang was silent for a while, then said: "...Four movies, at least until August next year... and there is also a TV series... I guess I have to wait until at least the end of the year..."

"Sure, as long as you agree to act!"

"Director team... I hope to find Director Yi Zheng... or Director Lou Jian!"

"…This…" Fang Ying hesitated for a moment…

Shen Liang looked at Yang Bei and said, "Lotus Tower was originally a project of Huanrui. They found Tencent and Tencent gave me the script... I liked it very much, but the director's ability was not up to par, so Tencent bought out the copyright and found Noon Sunshine, spending nearly 2000 million more!"

"Director Lin Yufen..."

"She is a professional, I want high quality and exquisite products!"

"…Let's think about it…"

"Well...you can consider it..."

Changing the director means changing the production team!

This is no small matter.

What Shen Liang actually meant was that he didn’t want directors from Hong Kong or Taiwan!
At this stage, the platform's S-level dramas are basically exclusively produced by directors from Hong Kong and Taiwan...

Before online dramas became the norm, there was a saying in the industry that Hong Kong directors were “cheap, fast-paced, and high-class.”

There are three key points in this sentence: price, efficiency, and texture.

Back then, when the aesthetics of Hong Kong and Taiwan directors prevailed, it was because they often shot in studios, using multi-directional lighting to create an effect similar to that of stage play shadowless lights, making people appear very bright. At the same time, the scenes of mainland Chinese dramas were often dark.

After making the comparison, my eyes immediately brightened up and the photos looked much more fashionable, so at that time I equated the "big flat light" used by Hong Kong and Taiwan directors with a synonym for fashion.

"Efficiency" is the unique hand speed of Hong Kong directors besides the "fashion sense" of lighting.

For example, it is common for Hong Kong drama directors to finish shooting a 45-minute x 20-episode costume drama within 30 days, but ten years ago, it was an impossible task for many mainland directors who were professionally trained and inexperienced. This is due to the Hong Kong TVB and ATV's integrated production and broadcasting system, which requires the continuous production of film and television dramas every year for TV stations to broadcast without interruption.

Another point is that Hong Kong directors often work together to shoot after going north. Each director is responsible for a part, and the crew is divided into two groups, A and B, to shoot at the same time. Even a large crew can add a C group, which will greatly increase efficiency.

As for the low price...

How low is it?
More than a decade ago, when there were not many directors who could make good ancient idol dramas, the pay for a single episode of a top mainland director could reach six figures. Around 2007, the pay for a single episode of a Hong Kong director was between 2.5 and 3. A 40-episode TV series could earn one million yuan, and the work period would not be delayed and could even be finished early, which was indeed an affordable price.

However, at this stage, for S-level projects, the maximum fee for screenwriters and directors is 30 per episode. If it is a 40-episode TV series, they can earn more than million after filming, which is not a low price.

Why doesn’t Shen Liang like it?
Because Hong Kong directors are not creative!
General living standard.

Hong Kong directors still have the habit of using three-point fixed camera positions for high-speed filming in Hong Kong's small-scale TV cities. That is, they use fewer moving shots if they can use fixed camera positions, and avoid large movements if they can move slightly. They try to use less moving cameras except for large scenes that require mobile groups...

They underestimated the progress of the audience's aesthetic taste.

As online dramas become more and more sophisticated, audiences can watch more and more good foreign dramas. Netizens are quite professional when talking about the dramas. They know everything about lighting, angles, costumes and props and are not easy to fool.

What Hong Kong directors contribute is products, not works!

Since it is a product, what is needed are experienced and cost-effective "workers" rather than artists.

This is undoubtedly slander and insult to a director with aesthetic requirements.

Therefore, Zhu Ruibin, the director of "Stars Falling into Sugar", was very dissatisfied.

So he began to obsess over using methods including but not limited to close-up shots, nostril enlargement, 45-degree overhead or downward shots, headlights, washing machine-style camera movements, funeral filters, and mysterious transitions.

Netizens jokingly called it "evil camera movement!"

The same is true for "Ning An Ru Meng"...

The rapid rotation of the camera makes people feel as if they are in a whirlpool, showing the heroine's hazy feeling of rebirth in 360 degrees. The camera movement technique is like a washing machine!

Ahem...

As for what iQiyi will do, Shen Liang doesn’t really care…

Anyway, he has already made the request, and there is no room for negotiation!
They agreed to these requests, and Shen Liang didn't mind taking two months to shoot a "Chow Sang-yu". It was only a 20-episode series anyway...

If you don’t agree…let’s cooperate next time!

(End of this chapter)